The Sharks finally pulled the strings on the long
rumored acquisition of defenseman Niclas Wallin. The Sharks send a 2nd round
pick in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft to the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for
Wallin and a 5th round pick in 2010. The veteran defenseman will make his
Sharks debut on Monday night in Toronto .

Niclas Wallin

Wallin has spent all nine years in the NHL playing for
Carolina , amassing 18 goals, 51 assists and 391 penalty minutes in 517 games
for the Hurricanes. More importantly is the 69 NHL playoff games Wallin brings
to the table, including a Stanley Cup Championship.

Niclas is a
playoff-hardened, veteran player with lots of postseason experience and a
Stanley Cup ring, said Sharks general manager Doug Wilson. Good,
solid character players are hard to come by and we think he will complement our
existing group very well. He has a history of playing his best when the games
mean the most.

Wallin is in the last year of a four-year
contract that will pay him $1.725 million this season. Because of the number of
games already played, the Sharks can fit Wallin in under the salary cap limit.
According to NHLNumbers.com, the Sharks still have half a million dollars of
cap space to play with.

One of the rumored sticking points to the Sharks
acquiring Wallin was if they could resign him to at least a two-year contract
extension. Giving up high draft picks in exchange for late season acquisitions
has been costly on San Jose s draft strength in recent years, so Wilson
was looking for some value in exchange for his 2nd round pick.

The
six-foot-three, 220-pound native of Boden , Sweden was drafted by Carolina in
the fourth round (97th overall) of the 2000 draft. He played for the Swedish
National Team at the 2008 World Championships, but will not represent his
native country at the upcoming Olympics.

With the Sharks playing on
the road before the Olympic break, fans in San Jose wont get their first
real look at Wallin until the team returns home on March 2nd.